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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
by U2


6.9

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 296 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

All That You Can't Leave Behind

Official Artist Site

The band's first new album since 2000, a more stripped-down, "classic U2" disc than previous efforts, was recorded chiefly with producer Steve Lillywhite, with Chris Thomas and Nellee Hooper also helming some tracks.

LABEL:	Interscope
RELEASE DATE:	23 November 2004
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Alternative, Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

E! Online

A slower album than most, Bomb eventually reveals itself as a work of genius, wrapping religion, love and life into emotionally thrilling gifts.

100

Los Angeles Times

[Bono] explores epic themes, from faith to family, with such indelible grace that the CD stands with "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby" as one of the Irish quartet's essential works. [21 Nov 2004]

Paste Magazine

Unabashedly grand and inspirational.

New Musical Express

Bono's genius is that his inner monologue is so huge and heroic that it matches the scale of the music. And, even more so than on 'All That You Can't Leave Behind,' the music is enormous. [13 Nov 2004, p.55]

Billboard

The sound is bigger, the playing better, the lyrics sharper and the spirituality more compelling than anything the act has done in many years.

ShakingThrough.net

Atomic Bomb is a reduction of U2's most definable characteristics into a very basic formula: impassioned vocals lent extra gravity by Bono's wavering voice; guitars that chime like bells; thick, meaty rhythm section workouts; slowly seductive hooks that build to triumphant, emotional, endorphin-releasing choruses. And on that level, it succeeds admirably.

Filter

So here we have another U2 album that's just as good as the last one. In fact, it's really good. [#13, p.88]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Yet in spite of the odds, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb finds U2 sounding just as passionate as it did on 1980's Boy, and just as committed to converting that passion into sprawling pop songs about God, love, and the world's injustices.

Uncut

Even at their most glibly bombastic, there's a melancholy undertow that they can't shake. [Album of the Month, Dec 2004, p.136]

Mojo

This is a very traditional U2 album, the sort of album people want U2 to make. [Dec 2004, p.96]

Q Magazine

With their 11th studio album, they've succeeded in not becoming crap quite admirably. [Dec 2004, p.126]

Drowned In Sound

Simply, it’s back to what it was all about in the first place; writing cracking tunes and just being boys in a band.

The Guardian

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb may be unadventurous and melodramatic, but it is packed with disarming moments.

Rolling Stone

This is grandiose music from grandiose men, sweatlessly confident in the execution of their duties.

All Music Guide

The record does sound good when it's playing, but [its] conservatism is what keeps HTDAAB earthbound and prevents it from standing alongside War, The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby as one of the group's finest efforts.

Blender

It nearly always feels fresh, the way a new flame does. [Dec 2004, p.132]

Entertainment Weekly

From the arrangements to the inevitable crashing-wave crescendos, echoes of "I Will Follow" and "New Year's Day" rumble through the songs. [26 Nov 2004, p.115]

cokemachineglow

Compared to All That You Can’t Leave Behind, it’s immensely sincere, well-thought out, and meaningful... [It] also happens to be loaded with hooks.

PopMatters

It's neither aggressive nor retro, and U2 sounds better for moving forward, even if they seem increasingly diluted in delivery at times.

Delusions of Adequacy

While the rest of the album fails to live up to the breadth of “City” and “Crumbs,” and while it takes serious missteps on the shockingly bad “Man and a Woman” and “Yahweh,” this is, by and large, an album to be thankful for, regardless of your demographic.

Pitchfork

Brash, grungy, and loud... a tiny handful of outstanding tracks and a whole mess of schmaltzy filler.

Stylus Magazine

A one-paced affair, enamoured with drawn-out ambient intros, crystalline guitars layered with reverb, four-note rumbles for basslines, choruses that go on forever and occasional, half-hearted stabs at “groove”. Meaning that it sounds EXACTLY as you would expect U2 to sound.

Trouser Press

The harder U2 tries to rock out with wild abandon here, the less spontaneous they end up sounding, making How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb more like an incredible simulation of a punk-influenced album rather than an actual punk-influenced album.

Village Voice

This time, Steve Lillywhite and the other producers assembled simply construct a U2 album in miniature, mixing in the Edge's processed-guitar trademark whenever you fear they're straying into unforgivable un-U2ness. That's just not enough.

Dot Music

Mostly this is U2 trying too hard, caring too much, being too insufferably genuine without having anything to be particularly genuine about.

Drawer B

Suffers from too much open-faced honesty and a serious lack of intensity.

The average user rating for this album is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 296 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

George C. gave it a0:
Totally irrelevant. U2 hasn't made a good record since War. If these guys aren't careful... in 5 years they're going to end up opening for Hinder or Nickelback on a tour of gay biker bars... in Bulgaria.

Pignoah gave it a1:
Mundane, repetitive, pretentious and phony musical trash.

Caleb M. gave it a9:
First time i heard this CD i thought it was a greatest hits CD. Thats how good it is.

Music Lover gave it a5:
I was so excited when I first got this album. Then I listened to it & all I felt was disappointment. I expected more from U2. I still got faith in Bono & the gang, though.

scott w. gave it an8:
U2 seems to just keep on going and going. In 2004 even though they already have two greatest hits albums spanning the 80s and 90s, they slam out an atomic musical explosion with an other album. Not the best work they have done, but not the worst. This one is like listening to the old but new U2, and is not a bad thing. A modern 80s or 90s U2 album is what it is, and it works off very well to save it from turning into something like the POP album.

Carlos M. gave it a10:
One of the latest hight prices of U2....

Matt O gave it a4:
I got this album expecting that I would love it, just as I loved All That You Can't Leave Behind. Of course, I hadn't yet heard "Vertigo," which is, in all honesty, a good lead-on to such a disappointment. I found each of the hits, aside from "Sometimes..." to be annoying. Bono screaming, "Oh, you look so beautiful tonight!" really angers me. Do lyrics mean nothing to this man? And, of course, he redeems himself on other songs. But, half of the album angers me, one-fourth of the remaining half disappoints me, and the rest just makes me want to put on a different CD. If they wanted to redefine their sound, they should have picked a better time in their career to do so. They shouldn't have changed what already sounded good.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb by U2

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
by U2